Apple has been crowned the number one smartphone manufacturer in the US, as a result of figures published today.
Research published by Kantar WorldPanel shows that in the last three months Apple's market share of smartphone sales has gone up to 48.1 per cent, putting it ahead of Google's Android at 46.7 per cent.
The data shows that Apple's market share has more than doubled compared to the same time last year, with the boost coming from promising iPhone 5 sales. Nearly 62 per cent of iPhone 5 sales came from existing Apple owners upgrading to the new handset.
"Apple has always managed to maintain loyalty levels far above the competition, and this has clearly played a part in driving sales of its new device. An impressive 92 per cent of existing Apple owners in the US said they will choose an iPhone the next time they upgrade," said Dominic Sunnebo global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel.
Meanwhile, Android's market share has dropped quite significantly from 63.3 per cent to 46.7 per cent, but it continues to dominate in European countries like Germany and Spain. It currently holds 73.9 per cent of sales in Germany and 81.7 per cent in Spain. Although Apple enjoys a healthy slice of the industry in Britain with a near 33 per cent share, Sunnebo warns that the firm still has a long way to go in Europe and other emerging markets like Brazil and China.
"Germany remains a tough market for Apple with its share falling by 5.1 percentage points over the past year. The Samsung Galaxy S3 has taken almost a quarter of the country's smartphone sales over the past 12 weeks to boost Android yet further," he said.
It was reported yesterday, that leading analyst Gene Munster expects Apple to bring out an 'iPhone 5 mini' costing around $200 (£125) by 2014, in a bid to broaden its market share in China and India.